The Wire: Sentencing (2002)

Synopsis
by Josh Ralske

Greggs (Sonja Sohn) wakes up and identifies one of her shooters. Bunk tries to get her to identify Wee-Bey (Hassan Johnson), but she refuses to bend the rules. Avon (Wood Harris) gets out on bail, and meets with Stringer (Idris Elba) and Levy (Michael Kostroff). They realize that the office at Orlando's was bugged, and Levy explains that the police targets in the Barksdale organization, including Avon, might have to make what's known as a "structured plea." Avon sends his sister (D'Angelo's mother) (Michael Hyatt) to D'Angelo (Larry Gilliard Jr.) with a message and gives her and Stringer the reins of his operation while he deals with his court case. Bunk, Pearlman (Deirdre Lovejoy), and McNulty (Dominic West) head to New Jersey to interrogate D'Angelo, who offers up information on several murder cases, implicating Avon and Stringer. He also tells them that Wee-Bey is in Philly. Faced with gruesome crime scene photos of several people his uncle has had killed, D'Angelo explains, "You just live with this...till you can't breathe no more," and expresses his desire for a new start. The unit tries to get the feds involved in the case, but they're not interested unless it involves organized crime or corruption, and the political corruption case can't be made unless they turn Avon and Stringer into cooperators. McNulty finally goes to see Greggs, who's thinking about quitting the force, and she has him pay a visit to Bubbles (Andre Royo). Herc (Dominick Lombardozzi) and Carver (Seth Gilliam) find out about their promotions. Daniels (Lance Reddick) confronts the snitch in the ranks. Prez (Jim True-Frost) gets his gun back and heads to Philly with the rest of the unit. Freamon (Clarke Peters) and McNulty find out what his hard work on the case has gotten them.